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Comment by plutonorm | Hacker News Reader

This just sounds like a member of the old guard being uncomfortable with progress. His arguments dont seem very strong, questions over why plants would have such a capacity. Then some hand waving about alternative explanations for experimental results. Probably just another case of the dismantling of human exceptionalism making people uncomfortable.

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Or it sounds like someone very familiar with the literature who's uncomfortable with some hyperbolic claims in his field. Someone who is comfortable attributing consciousness to arthropods is probably comfortable with dismantling human exceptionalism.

The literature of what, philosophy of mind? This question is not relevant to his field, which is psychiatry.

If his arguments are weak, it should not be necessary to buttress counterarguments with speculation about his motives.

Or perhaps exceptional claims (plants have brains we just can’t see them) require exceptional evidence.

Like the exceptional claim that human consciousness resides in the brain despite documented evidence of remote viewing [1], terminal lucidity [2], memories of past lives [3], etc.? Maybe it's time these "scientists" start doing actual science instead of sticking to their ultra-materialist dogma.

[1] https://fas.org/irp/program/collect/air1995.pdf

[2] https://med.virginia.edu/perceptual-studies/wp-content/uploa...

[3] https://med.virginia.edu/perceptual-studies/publications/aca...

Without leaning one way or the other I've always wondered what neuroimaging one of these experiences would look like. If nothing obvious is happening and the imagee reports a rich and detailed experience it might be persuasive.

Indeed. Severe cases of hydrocephalus [1], for example, where an otherwise functional individual is missing large portions of their brain may provide partial answers.

[1] https://med.virginia.edu/perceptual-studies/wp-content/uploa...

Not so exceptional, the centriole is essentially the eye and brain of a cell. If cells are able to leverage quantum mechanics like our retina, chlorophyll, bird magnetoreception, and olfaction, then why not for memory or computation? Essentially neurons aren't a simple switch, but rather contain a processor & memory in themselves.

Yep -- I remember reading a review of "Plant-Thinking" around the time it was published that said something like "The critics who deride [the notion of plant-consciousness as expressed in the book] do so in language that demonstrates exactly the hierarchical, essentialist attitudes that the book looks to expose and dismantle"

When people reject novelty theories like this, it's usually because basic intelligence tells us it's so unlikely to be either true or useful that it's not worth considering.

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